Police probe alleged arms landing in Sulu

ZAMBOANGA CITY – Police are investigating reports of landing of hundreds of illegal weapons in the southern province of Sulu, where government security forces are battling Abu Sayyaf militants and other armed groups in the region. "We are investigating reports that 300 illegal weapons landed in the town of Luuk," said Senior Superintendent Bienvenido Latag, the regional police chief. Sulu Governor Sakur Tan, citing intelligence reports, last week said the weapons were smuggled into Luuk by a still unidentified armed group last month after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared martial law in Maguindanao province. Security forces in Maguindanao recovered huge caches of light infantry and heavy artillery weapons allegedly owned by the powerful Ampatuan clan following the martial law declaration. It was unknown whether the weapons came from Maguindanao or who owns the arms cache. The implementation of martial law on most parts of Maguindanao lasted from December 4 to 12. The Ampatuan clan is one of the most feared in Mindanao and also among the wealthiest in the impoverished Maguindanao province, whose former governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., and his sons, Zaldy Ampatuan, the regional governor, and town mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., and several family members and relatives were linked by authorities to the gruesome killings of 57 people on November 23. Among those killed were 31 journalists and the wife and relatives of Buluan Vice Mayor Ismael Mangudadatu, who is a candidate for governor of Maguindanao in next year’s polls. The victims were on a political caravan when they were abducted and killed by more then 100 gunmen allegedly led by Ampatuan Jr. All of them were eventually arrested in connection with the brutal slayings. The Ampatuans denied all the accusations against them. Tan put Sulu under a state of emergency last year after Abu Sayyaf militants kidnapped three Red Cross workers. He also ordered security forces to dismantle all private armies of political warlords in the province. Last year, police also recruited some 2,000 civilians to form part of the Police Auxiliary Unit to help authorities fight terrorism and guard villages against rebel attacks. Explosions On Sunday, a grenade exploded outside a Roman Catholic Church in Sulu’s capital town of Jolo. The blast damaged the window panes of the Our Lady of the Mount Carmel cathedral, but there were no casualties in the attack. On New Year’s Eve, a grenade also exploded in front of the church, wounding one government soldier guarding the cathedral. The church was also targeted twice last year. On October 27, a grenade was lobbed by an unidentified man the back of the cathedral and the explosion damaged several windows. Suspected Abu Sayyaf militants also detonated a homemade bomb in front of the church last year. The Abu Sayyaf group was also linked to last year’s failed assassination attempt on Tan outside his office in Patikul town. Militants bombed Tan’s convoy on May 13 that wounded 10 people, including local town mayor Hatta Berto. Tan just came from his office and on his way home when a motorcycle bomb exploded near his vehicle. Police later captured two suspected bombers Juhan Alimuddin and Sulayman Muin who confessed to investigators that they were hired by Tan’s political foe to kill the governor. - Al Jacinto/RSJ/KBK, GMANews.TV